Natsu's Secret
by Shiruke-Lightheart
Summary: Team Natsu had taken a quest in a faraway town after a break from quests that had unexpectedly lasted two months because Natsu seemed out of it. But as Gray and Natsu share a room, Gray discovers something new and it's up to Happy to explain why Natsu had been 'out of it' for the last two months…


Finally, after two months, the team had gotten back together again. The reason why it had taken so long was because Natsu told them he had been feeling 'out of it' and he needed some time for himself. Doing a few little quests with Happy, never the normal quests he normally did on his own… He also didn't stay at the guild till late which he always did normally too. The whole guild had noticed that something was wrong with the fire dragon slayer but everyone just decided to brush it off. Every mage had their periods that something in their private life happened which made them feel 'out of it'; maybe Natsu had just been dumped by some girlfriend he hadn't yet told the guild about

But today, they had decided to do a major quest again after two months; it was surprisingly Natsu's idea too. Happy had still asked if Natsu knew for sure he was feeling okay and Natsu had shrugged it off and said he was feeling fine. Happy still looked worried and checked on his best friend every now and then.  
But the quest was finished quickly and they went to the booked hotel to spend the night there. Gray and Natsu shared a room with Happy and Erza and Lucy shared the other one.

After they ate dinner in the hotel's restaurant, they all went to their rooms and while Gray took a shower, Natsu was already nodding off on the bed.  
When Gray exited the bathroom, he found Natsu curled up on his side of the bed, the blanket hastily thrown over him, probably done by Happy, and Happy curled up next to Natsu's head on the pillow; the white muffler wrapped around the bedpost.

Gray yawned too and pushed the blankets to Natsu's side since he didn't need them himself, then he got into the bed as well and quickly fell asleep.  
However, Gray woke up again that night when he needed to use the bathroom. He turned to his side and looked at the alarm _'4:30'_ the red light indicated. Gray sighed as he picked up his lacrima phone and used the light that came off the screen to shine his way to the bathroom.  
When he got out of the bathroom again, the light of the bathroom lit up Natsu's figure; Natsu was still in the same position as when Gray went to sleep, curled up in a ball. But Gray noticed that he was hugging something, did Natsu honestly still sleep with a stuffed animal? How had he never noticed? But then he realised that wasn't right, normally Natsu always cuddled with Happy when they were sleeping; but now Happy was curled up around Natsu's head, his tail on Natsu's neck in a what seemed reassuring way.

They really did look cute, Gray thought; but no way he would ever let Natsu know that he thought the dragon slayer was cute! He wanted to know what Natsu was cuddling with though, maybe he could tease the pinket with it a little. But for now, he went back to bed to get some more sleep.

When Gray woke up the next morning again, the sun was shining through the almost translucent curtains, lighting up the whole room in a bright white light. Gray sat up and noticed that Natsu was no longer in bed. That was when he heard the shower running. Happy was eating a fish on the bed were Natsu had slept and that was when Gray noticed the thing Natsu had been cuddling with that night. A plushie of himself. Did Natsu really have that big of an ego that he needed to sleep with a stuffed version of himself?

"Hey Happy!" Gray called out, making the blue exceed look up. "Since when did Natsu's ego get the size where he needs to sleep with a small version of himself?"  
Gray thought for sure that he saw Happy glaring at him and heard the exceed mumble "He can't know, Natsu didn't tell anyone…"

"Didn't tell anyone what?" Gray asked out of curiosity. Did this have something to do with the fact that Natsu had been feeling down for the last two months.  
Happy held his paws in front of his mouth as if he had just said something he shouldn't have said.

"I guess it can't hurt to tell you at the very least…" Happy said as he started telling  
"It all started after the Fantasia parade four months ago when Natsu met a girl…"  
"So this is about a girlfriend after all huh?" Gray interrupted and Happy glared at him clearly now "The girl was five Gray…"

 ** _Flashback from here_**

Natsu and Happy were walking back from the Fantasia parade to the guild. Natsu had finally gotten rid of the horde of fangirls engulfing him and wanted to hurry back now so he wouldn't have to deal with more fangirls.

But his sharp hearing picked something up a bit further. It was the voice of a little girl "Look mommy! It's Natsu! Do you think he'll come say something!?"  
"I'm sure he's busy honey, he's probably on his way back to the guild. We should not bother him," a somewhat older woman, which Natsu guessed was the young girl's mom, answered and Natsu turned his head in the direction he had heard the voices coming from, totally ignoring Happy's talking about fish.

He spotted a little girl holding a plushie of him, the kind they sold at the guild too, and wearing a scarf that matched his. Natsu walked off and left Happy floating. Happy quickly noticed his best friend departing and followed after the fire dragon slayer.

Just as the mother and her child were walking away, Natsu tapped the mother's shoulder who turned around, causing the little girl to notice him and lighten up, a big smile appearing on her face.

"Mommy! It's Natsu!", she said as she stretched her hands out to Natsu. The mother still tried to pull her back to not be rude to Natsu, but Natsu loved children and happily took her in his arms for a big hug. The mother smiled as Natsu was talking to her daughter about his adventures while Happy was sitting on his head, enthusiastically joining Natsu in telling the stories.

After a while, though, both Happy and the young girl whose name he had learned was Rei fell asleep in his arms and he ended up talking to the mother of the girl.  
"It's wonderful that Rei was able to meet you at last; she thought it would never happen. You see, Rei has a terminal illness and was just released from the hospital once more last week. She's doing well now, but we never know how long the good time will last…"  
Natsu looked down at the girl in his arms and his smile dropped. Then, he looked into the woman's eyes with great determination "If there ever is anything I can do, please come to the fairy tail guild and ask after me. And I mean anything!"

The woman nodded as she took over Rei from Natsu "Thank you so much Natsu-san. You are a lot nicer in real life than the magazines say," she told him with a smile. Natsu laughed; well, the magazines mostly said things about his destructive behaviour…

The rest of the way home, Natsu felt happy. He felt as if he had truly done something good for once, not destroying stuff like always; he had made the wish of a terminally ill girl come true. He wanted to be able to do more though, maybe Wendy could do something.

 ** _Flashback end_**

"So Natsu is just a Lolicon who fell in love with a young girl and he's heartbroken because he can't be with her because she's like, five?" Gray asked. He received another glare from Happy which he knew he totally deserved and Happy went on with the story

 ** _Flashback…_**

As Natsu was staring at the ceiling in his bed that night, Happy curled up against him, and thought about the girl he had met that evening. She was such a big fan of him and he couldn't help but feel fond of her; she was just so cute. But then her mom had told him that she was chronically ill… She was looking healthy though…

Two weeks later, while Natsu was in the guild drinking and talking to Romeo about his last epic quest, a woman with brown hair, which Natsu recognised as Rei's mother, walked into the guild and when she spotted his pink hair, ran at him. "Natsu-san!" the brunette yelled "Rei is in the hospital. It's really bad this time. She wanted to see you before… before it might be too late…" the woman said as she broke into tears. Natsu put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her and cocked his head up, looking around the guild. He spotted the young girl with dark blue hair and called her name "Wendy! Can you come with us!?" he yelled and Wendy nodded, yelling back "Sure!"  
"I'll come too," Happy yelled and hovered above Natsu head.

The three of them went to the hospital with Rei's mom where she led them to the young girl's room. When Natsu walked into the room, Rei spotted him and smiled. Natsu had explained everything to Wendy on their way to the hospital so Wendy was the only one who knew about Natsu and Rei. Mostly because Master Makarov always had told them to not get too attached to their fans because there could be dangerous psycho's in there sometimes. But Natsu couldn't help but get attached to this sweet little girl.

Natsu gave Rei a hug and they talked a bit while Wendy was talking to the doctors and explained that she was also here to help healing the little girl with her healing magic. As the doctors gave Wendy more information about the condition of the little girl, Natsu was still talking to her non-stop. Telling her about his latest quest with the team to entertain her.

When Wendy had gotten all of the information needed for the healing from the doctor, Natsu moved over so Wendy could start her healing magic on the little girl. While she was healing she told Natsu "I can't cure her sadly enough, but I can make her stronger and give her a bit more resistance to the illness for now. I don't know how long it will last though, her condition is fairly bad. The doctors told me they're not really positive about all this.

A sad look appeared on Natsu's eyes, he wanted to save Rei; at this point, he would give up his own health so he could cure her… Was this what the master had meant when he had said that it was dangerous to get too attached to your fans?

Days passed, and Natsu was at Rei's bed almost every day with Wendy and Happy. Putting a smile on her face again and again, making her forget that she was incurably ill for just a moment.  
But even Natsu could see that she wasn't getting any better. In fact, even with all Wendy's healing powers and the healers and doctors of the hospital, her condition was getting worse every day.

One day, when Natsu was on his way to the hospital to visit Rei again, he was halted by Erza. "The master needs to speak you." She said and dragged him towards the guild. Natsu didn't dare complain as he was still keeping the whole Rei thing a secret from the guild so no one would judge him. The only people who knew about Rei were Happy and Wendy.

As he entered the master's office, he immediately started thinking about all the things he could've done wrong. Was it that town he burned down last week? No, he already got his punishment for that… Then maybe the master had found out about Rei after all!? No, that couldn't be it; right?  
Makarov signed him to sit down and Natsu swallowed hard. He was getting a bit nervous now…

But then suddenly, the old man started talking about a quest Natsu had been asked for. Happy could come with him, but that was all. It would be a tough quest he had been specifically been asked for so he had to leave as soon as possible.  
He would go home, grab some of his stuff and be back in a few days.

He asked Wendy before he left the guild to keep taking care of Rei until he returned later that week and ran off to his house to grab his stuff.

 ** _Flashback ends… for now…_**

"How did he manage to keep all of that a secret from the guild? And more importantly, why did he want to keep it a secret from the guild?" Gray asked the blue cat. Happy shrugged "He never really told me the full details about why he didn't wanted the guild to know; but I guess it had something to do with the fact that the master is very strict about seeing fans and such…" Happy explained and Gray realised that the blue cat was indeed right. The old man wasn't fond at all of his guild members seeing their fans too much; he had one thing he always said about fans "Don't get attached to them, it could be dangerous' and of course Natsu had gotten attached to one of his fans again… Breaking the rules really was something only he could be that good in…

 ** _Flashback time again…_**

Natsu worked hard to finish his quest as soon as possible and he returned in three days from a quest that should have lasted a week and half. Covered in cuts and bruises, he managed to get his tired body to the guild where Mira bandaged him up. He noticed Wendy wasn't at the guild then, perhaps she was with Rei…

As soon as Mira was finished, he excused himself out of the guild and went to the hospital with Happy, running as they could so they could see Rei again soon. But as soon as Natsu entered the hospital, he noticed Wendy walking towards the doors. She looked tired, defeated, sad? Natsu couldn't quite pin it down.

"Yo Wendy," he called out to her. Wendy looked up startled as she saw Natsu walking towards her "How's Rei doing. I bought a little souvenir for her in the town of my quest," Natsu told Wendy with a big smile on his face.

But the pinket soon noticed that something really was off "Wendy, are you okay? You look tired; maybe you should go home and rest a bit…" Natsu proposed as he ruffled her hair and walked off towards Rei's room. But when Natsu had passed her, Wendy pulled on his scarf which made him look back again. "What is it Wendy?" Natsu asked.

"Rei-chan is…" she said as she broke down in sobs. Natsu feared the worse. His eyes widened and he ran off to her room "Rei-chan is dead…" Wendy whispered, but Natsu had already ran off.

Natsu stormed into the room where Rei had been over the past weeks but found only her mother crying as she packed the little girl's stuff. Natsu stepped inside the room and let his bag fall to the floor "W-where is Rei?" he asked, he almost didn't want to know the answer, afraid for the worst

Rei's mother looked up and ran at the pinket standing in the door in shock. Tears ran down her cheeks as she hugged him and told him "Rei didn't make it, her heart stopped early this morning…"  
Natsu still tried to keep strong for the mother's sake, but tears started rolling down his cheeks involuntarily and he returned the hug as he broke down in tears as well.

When Happy had finally caught up with Natsu as well, he saw the two of them in tears next to Rei's empty bed and guessed what had happened. The blue exceed hugged Natsu tightly as he too started crying.

Rei's mom broke free from the hug, trying to stop her tears as she walked back to the bed and picked up the Natsu plushie Rei always seemed to carry around. She handed it to Natsu and said "Rei asked me to give it to you if something would happen…". She hugged Natsu again when he had accepted it and told him "Thank you so much for everything you've done for us. Everything you've done for Rei…"

Natsu picked up his bag again and got out the souvenir he had bought for Rei on his quest. It was a dragon ornament made from stone and gems which he knew Rei would like since she loved dragons so much. "I bought this for Rei on my quest; could you please place it on her grave when she gets buried? I don't like graveyards a lot… I don't like to come there…"

The mother nodded and said "I understand. You should go rest now Natsu-san; you've fought hard on your quest," she told him as she traced some bandages on his arm. Natsu nodded wearily and walked out of the hospital and back to his cottage in a slow pace; Happy resting on his shoulder trying not to cry.

 ** _Flashback ends…_**

"So, Natsu went through all that, and still never told us anything?" Gray asked the blue exceed who just nodded as an answer. Gray looked at the door of the bathroom where he had heard the shower stop running and heard Natsu softly humming as he dried himself. He looked back at Happy and asked the blue exceed "Why didn't he tell anyone. He should know that he can at least come to Erza or me with things like that, right?"

Happy shook his head "He told me he didn't want to be a burden to anyone, so that's why he didn't tell anyone…"  
Just then, the bathroom door opened and Natsu walked out in his underwear, still ruffling the white hotel towel through his hair. Gray thought he looked happy. Like he looked now, no one would've ever guessed that something was wrong with Natsu. Or that something terrible like he had just heard had happened to the pink haired dragon slayer.

Gray got up and hugged Natsu. When Natsu wanted to protest, he heard Gray whispering in his ear "Don't ever think you're a burden again. Don't you dare! Next time something happens, no matter how small; just come and tell me. Don't you ever try to go through something like that on your own again!" Gray yelled as he broke down in tears. Natsu didn't know what came over him, he looked over to where Happy was sitting and saw the blue exceed nodding and mouthing ' _sorry'_

So Happy had told Gray… Maybe it was better like this anyway, if someone knew that meant he could go to that person for help. Natsu leaned into Gray's hug and whispered "I'm sorry," before breaking down into tears as well "I'm really sorry!"

Gray didn't know what was coming over him, having Natsu crying in his arms made his heart flutter weird. Maybe he should have that checked up when they came back from this quest.  
He brushed his fingers through Natsu's hair as he told the pinket "You've done well holding strong like this; but allow yourself to show some weakness sometimes too."

Happy noticed the tender moment that was shared by the two of them and flew out of the room to give them some space. When he entered the room that Lucy and Erza shared, Erza asked him "Happy, why are you here? Are Natsu and Gray fighting again?"  
Happy shook his head and told her with a smirk "The contrary actually. And I wanted to give them some space. They llllllllllike each other!"

Erza and Lucy looked at Happy with their mouths open in surprise "Did you just say that Natsu and Gray… like each other?" Lucy asked. Happy just nodded and giggled.

In the other room, Natsu looked up with tears in his eyes "So, you don't think I'm a burden when I show weakness?" the pinket asked. Gray shook his head "It's a bit weird to see you like this, but you're definitely not a burden. Not to me at least." Gray said. But what was this feeling he got when he looked into Natsu's big olive eyes?  
Natsu was lost in those blue eyes of the ice mage. Had Gray always looked this good? Natsu had never really taken the time to properly look at the ice mage like this. But he looked damn good.

The tension in the room was high, both of them were just staring in each other's eyes like those eyes were the last thing they would ever see. Until Gray suddenly made his move and softly pressed his lips on Natsu's.  
Natsu was shocked at first by Gray's action but realised he actually liked it soon enough and melted into Gray's lips. It was funny how his lips were noticeably warmer than the rest of Gray's body but still felt cold to him.

Gray suddenly felt that Natsu was returning the kiss and his heart jumped. Did Natsu like this as much as he did. Gray broke up and shook his head. How did they even get in this situation to begin with? They were talking about Natsu's secret.  
"Natsu, are you planning to tell anyone else? About your secret I mean."  
Natsu looked down and shook his head. "I don't want it to get out. Gramps will probably get mad because of what I've done; I got close to one of my fans…"

Gray moved some hair out of the pinket's face and told him with a smirk "Gramps has gotten mad over worse things than that to you. Are you suddenly chickening out flame brain?"  
"Am not!" Natsu yelled as he tackled Gray on the bed  
"Oh yes you are!" Gray yelled back as he punched Natsu in his face.  
Natsu responded with a kick to Gray's gut and it turned into a full on fist fight.

Erza and Lucy, who still couldn't believe what Happy had said, had slowly opened the door to the room the boys shared to see if it was really true what Happy had said. But when they looked through the crack in the door, they saw the two of them fighting like always. Erza sighed as she readied herself to knock both of them out so at least the fighting would stop when suddenly Gray had Natsu pinned down against the mattress and crashed their lips together. The two girls gasped at the sight and Happy only smirked knowingly.

Natsu had long noticed the three looking at them in the hallway but didn't mind that they saw him like this. He had never expected that a secret he desperately wanted to hide because it made him seem weak, would lead to things like this. He certainly didn't mind it though. He actually rather liked it.

 _'Thanks Rei…'_


End file.
